


Alive

by BlueNeutrino



Series: When Two Hearts Beat As One [17]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Episode Tag, Episode: s13e22 Exodus, Gen, Heartbeats, brother hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-11
Updated: 2018-05-11
Packaged: 2019-05-05 08:25:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14614002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueNeutrino/pseuds/BlueNeutrino
Summary: Tag to the brother hug in 13x22 after Dean and Sam are reunited.





	Alive

_Alive. Sam is alive._

Dean almost can’t bring himself to believe it until he wraps his arms around Sam and breathes him in, feeling his little brother return the embrace like he’s clinging on for that same dear life. Maybe he is. After the trauma he’s just been dealt, he needs convincing of his own vitality just as much as Dean does.

The memory of Sam crying his name, blood spurting in fierce pulses from his torn throat, is still all too fresh in Dean’s mind. He hadn’t imagined it. Dean had watched that gush of blood turn to a trickle and seen his brother’s lifeless body dragged away through the darkness, and he’d known.

It isn’t an unfamiliar feeling. He’s seen his brother die before. It never gets any easier to watch, and the relief he feels upon Sam returning to him never gets any less. No matter how many times they come back from the dead or whatever strange new gods and monsters they face, Sam’s heartbeat is never something Dean will take for granted.

He can feel that heartbeat now, pounding against his chest in rhythm with his own as they both hardly dare believe they’ve been given yet another chance. It’s the most beautiful feeling in the world.

Dean closes his eyes and savors Sam’s warmth and strong arms around him, all else forgotten as the two of them become the only beings in existence. Jack, Michael, Lucifer...for just an instant in time, none of it matters. The only important thing is that they’re here with each other.

Eventually, after what seems to be both an age and an instant, they pull apart. The spell breaks. Dean can no longer feel his brother’s heartbeat, a gulf of mere inches between them, but Sam lives.

Dean promises that if they do come upon danger again, whether it be Lucifer or Michael or more rabid vampires in a cave, his own heart will stop before he allows death to take Sam again.


End file.
